Tennessee

Repeal barely passed in Tennessee, with
just over 51% of voters approving the end of Prohibition on July 20,
1933. A convention ratified that decision on August 11. The stories
below illustrate the huge problem Tennessee had with very poisonous
bootleg liquor, a problem which does a great deal to explain how
repeal passed in a state as dry as Tennessee.

Multiple newspapers ran stories
about a mysterious paralysis epidemic that struck Tennessee iin
1930. According to reports, there were as many fifty cases of this
paralysis, and “several of the patients had been drinking liquor
of questionable quality.” Given this, experts considered “the
possibility that poison alcohol could be the cause.”

In 1925, an article ran about a
specific type of moonshine from Tennessee that was especially
deadly. Ingredients included both lye and poison ivy, and drinkers
of it were described as having “their lips protruding out and
their tongues hanging out, the mucous membrane of the mouth burned
off by the fiery fluid.”